Ding Liren sneaks a peek at his opponent Gukesh in a game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore. (PHOTO: FIDE/Eng Chin An)
For the second time in eight games at the World Chess Championship, Ding Liren, the man with the crown on his head, tried to play out a draw despite having the upper hand.
And Gukesh, the teenager playing in his first World Chess Championship, has been pushing for a win, even in comparatively worse positions.
Follow our liveblog of Game 9 of the World Chess Championship here: World Chess Championship Game 9
One of the popular theories that explains this paradox is that if the best-of-14 games match stays level on points after 14 games, players will have to fight it out in shorter time control tiebreaks, which is a format that favours Ding Liren. It was via the tiebreaks that Ding Liren had become world champion last year.
Elite players like former world champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura believe that Ding Liren would not mind the match heading into tiebreaks.
“If Gukesh tells Ding Liren, let’s play out six draws and let’s take this into the tiebreaks, Ding Liren will accept before Gukesh can even complete the sentence,” said Carlsen on the Take Take Take app. After Game 7
It must be noted that Gukesh’s calculation prowess makes him exceptional in classical chess. The Indian has a rating of 2783 in classical. But the shorter the format, the lower his rating dips: 2654 in rapid and 2615 in blitz.
“Gukesh has not done anything in his career to suggest that he’s very good at rapid. He’s a very confident young man. I’m sure he believes that he can win even in tiebreaks. But we’re looking at facts and there is nothing from his career to suggest that rapid is a good format for him,” Carlsen added.
Ding Liren, on the other hand, is one of the rare players to have defeated Magnus Carlsen in tiebreaks (at the Sinquefield Cup in 2019).
“This game was very choppy and chaotic. When I look at this game overall, I think Ding Liren might be a little bit unhappy at the missed opportunity perhaps. But the big loser today is definitely Gukesh. This is the second game in a row that he was completely winning. He was winning the board, he was 30 minutes ahead on the clock. I really feel that in this match, it will come down to whether Ding Liren can continue to hang on. If Ding hangs on for another draw in game 9 and goes to rest day with one additional white game compared to Gukesh, he will be, maybe not the favourite, but he will have really good chances,” said Hikaru Nakamura.
The American grandmaster added: “It really feels like this is getting more and more frustrating for Gukesh. The longer Gukesh lets Ding find these miracles, the more the chances are the old Ding Liren is going to find his form. There is no upside for Gukesh here. For Ding Liren, great result.”
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
